422 



advisers. At the present time there are 79 fishing cooperatives with a total mem- 

 bership of more than 17,000 people. 



There is now a 3,000 flngerlings capacity in Vietnamese hatcheries. Through- 

 out the country 27 rtiillion flngerlings have been distributed to local fish ponds. 

 Even for fresh water fish ponds security has been a limiting factor to any ex- 

 pansion program. 



The total economic assistance provided to South Vietnam by AID in FY 1968 

 is expected to be $490 million. Of this, $270 million is directed to the project pro- 

 gram through which technical assistance and commodity support is provided to 

 the government of Vietnam for its civilian programs. 



AID'S principle efforts in the agriculture area for the coming year will be 

 to greatly increase production of rice and protein foods. Included in the protein 

 category are pork, poultry, and fish. The goal established by AID for output in 

 these three protein sources is a 10 percent increase annually during the 1968- 

 1971 period. For fish production the emphasis will be on supplying improved 

 equipment (boats, engines, nets, etc.) to fishermen in greater quantity and on 

 better terms. Effort will be extended to improve credit to fishermen and their 

 organizations. The nature of the fishing industry in Vietnam is such that large 

 inputs of dollars are not required to achieve the hoped-for goals. This is ap- 

 parent from the large increase in fish yield during the past eight years with 

 relatively small dollar inputs but considerable technical advice and improve- 

 ment in procedures. Fishing is a family oriented private enterprise venture in 

 Vietnam. 



In FY 1967 for the fishing industry, the program grew rapidly to a planned 

 level of $358,000, of which $207,000 was expended by the end of the year. The 

 program for FY 1968 is expected to cost $356,000 while next year's program 

 will increase to $412,000. 



Mr. Lennon. I think it would be very interesting to go to the floor 

 of the House and the Senate and get the figures for 1968 for economic 

 assistance allocation of funds. Most Congressmen know what high 

 portion fish are to the diet, and point out that we are spending several 

 hundreds of millions of dollars over there but we can only spend a 

 few thousand dollars for the basic diet of these people. 



Mr. Rogers. I have read your statement and I, too, hope you will put 

 greater emphasis on developing this program. It seems to me we are 

 far behind. 



How do our efforts compare with Russia ? 



Mr. Waters. In the assistance field ? 



Mr. Rogers. Yes; but developing the food from the sea, the fish 

 protein. 



Mr. Waters. I pass that to Mr. Parman. 



Mr. Parman. Mr. Congressman, that is a little difficult but I will 

 do what I can on it. If you are talking about what they are doing for 

 their own needs 



Mr. Rogers. Not only for their own needs ; perhaps you could com- 

 ment on that, however. 



Mr. Parman. Their own needs are quite obvious from what I have 

 been able to see and study. They have undertaken a very deliberate 

 program of greatly increasing their fishing capacity with most mod- 

 ern gear. They have floating factory ships which are fantastic and 

 they are fishing the world seas. This fish is largely going back to 

 Russia. They have done very little in terms of aid to other countries 

 except to supply trawlers and fishing boats to some of the countries, 

 particularly in the Gulf of Guinea in Africa. They have done quite 

 a bit down there, but when Nkrumah got kicked out in Ghana the 

 Russians were kicked out with him. 



They have sold a lot of fish to the Africans on a straight commercial 

 basis but I have not seen any evidence beyond that of any intensive pro- 



